Angotti (Part 1)
Tom Angotti’s book New York for Sale provides some interesting readings. Chronicling the history of city planning in New York, Angotti focuses on key moments that served to “signal” community planning.
The first reaches back to the colonial and pre-Civil War eras. It challenges the popular conception of the North, and New York in particular, as a longtime bastion of progressivism. It is often forgotten that slaves were owned even in traditionally “liberal” cities. The Dutch, who founded New York as New Amsterdam, were also responsible for introducing the slave trade to the New World. New York had cited major slave rebellions starting from 1712. More interestingly, however, Angotti talks about what happened next. As renters rather than owners, blacks were especially vulnerable to displacement. Angotti quickly charts the forced path of New York’s black population northward, starting below Wall Street, moving past contemporary LES and Little Italy, eventually reaching Harlem. He also mentions the push into outer boroughs, particularly Brooklyn and the Bronx. He takes care to mention, however, that this geographic ascension stopped cold at the suburbs, primarily due to discriminatory mortgage laws. He also notes that the first instance of “urban renewal” involved moving blacks and other minority groups out of part of the Five Points neighborhood.
The second is Henry George’s campaign for mayor. George singled out real estate speculation as the major cause of poverty. Speculative investment and purchase of New York’s land led to disruption and displacement of communities, while concentrating wealth in the hands of land owners and monopolists. George noted that private entities unjustly earned profit by restricting access to natural resources. At the same time, actual productive activity was taxed heavily, leading to a system that George likened to wage slavery. George’s most known and enduring proposition was the land-value tax, in which the government would tax the value of the land itself. In this way, private entities would be unable to profit simply by owning the land – they would have to do something with it. Garnering support from Irish nationalist groups (an impressive feat for a politician of British stock), populist groups, and labor, George made a close but ultimately unsuccessful bid for Mayor in 1886. Despite finishing ahead of future president Theodore Roosevelt, George was defeated (possibly fraudulently) by the Tammany Hall Democratic candidate.
Immigrants poured in from Europe, many bringing left-wing political ideals and joining parties and organizations that furthered those notions. Tenants began to organize on increasing scales, with rents strikes becoming a somewhat effective tool against predatory landlords. Rent control represented a major victory for working class communities, serving to stabilize individual housing costs and thereby consolidating and protecting the community. However, as has been noted in more recent readings, rent regulation is falling out of favor. As the city puts its new affordable housing plan into action, landlords of rent-regulated properties tend to find it in their interest to sell to private developers, who evict, demolish, and rebuild on the lot. Sure, these new buildings have affordable units, but they are never as affordable, or as numerous, as old rent-regulated housing.
Angotti talks about LaGuardia’s role in the city during the Depression, and briefly discusses his association with Robert Moses. Moses used eminent domain to claim public land for highways and other projects. The resulting displacement was neither the beginning nor the end of “urban renewal’s” status as Negro removal.
